[truthguy]

OK, here's a post that's going to make some mad. Clinton is at least in part correct. It's the demand in the US that's driving this problem. When people in a very poor can money hand over fist with drugs, some will do this.

Let's legalize the stuff and this violence will stop overnight. Yes we will have some problems with this but I'm convinced they will be less than what we have now. Not only will the violence lessen in Mexico but it will lessen in the United States. We aren't going to win the "War on Drugs" without becoming a "police" state. That's too high a price to pay and we don't want to give government any more reason to increase their power. And let's not forget terrorism. The terrorists get a lot of their money from illegal drugs. Legalizing these substances will cut off at least one supply of cash that they have.

I'm for freedom. I don't take drugs and wouldn't take them if they were as cheap as a McDonald's hamburger. But this has gone on long enough. Let's end it.

OK let the slings and arrows begin.

[headsonpikes]

You’re just a liberaltarian pothead slacker living in your mom’s basement!

Go back to DU!

/kneejerk worshipper of the state bootlicker voice

We know you’re out there.

[cripplecreek]

Let's legalize the stuff and this violence will stop overnight.

And you could stop using drugs overnight too. It's far more effective than decades of demanding something you won't get. But then again, it really isn't about concern for the violence is it?

[Teacher317]

When people in a very poor [country] can money hand over fist with drugs, some will do this.

Problem is, Mexico is NOT a poor country. Even without drug revenues, they top $1 TRillion annual GDP, and are over $10,000 per capita GDP, which is above the global average. We keep excusing them and pretending they're a "poor" nation, but the numbers say otherwise. They're quite well-supplied with oil and mineral and metal deposits.

[dmet]

I agree. I personally want nothing to do with drugs, but there comes a time when it is obvious that we will never win the war on drugs...NEVER... then the only other option is to legalize and cut all the profit out of drugs. Then you apply the same laws to users as we now have for alcohol. Druggies are going to be druggies whether it is legal or not. We have to live with that, but we can take the profit out for the smugglers and dealers.

[chuckles]

OK, I have an arrow or two for you. I think dopeheads are supporting the ragheads that knocked a couple of buildings down in the US. I thing the potheads are ruining our country and our kids. I think they are supporting organizations like FARC and Hugo Chavez.

Here's what I think The gubmint should do. Buy a couple more tents for Sheriff Arpaio and just let him store them in the desert as far as the eye can see. Let them work building the border fence about 12 hours a day for about 6 months and see if they want that blunt when they get out. If they do, we can always use some people cleaning American highways for a year or so. If you are a coke head or a heroin user, or for that matter almost any other illicit drug users, we could give you a cot and a stick to bite on for a few days, then you go out to the highway detail for maybe a year.

This would be cheaper than the billions we give each year to coddle these scum that kill and maim people every year just to scum up the American dream for everyone else. If I ever see anyone light up in front of me or my family, it will go dark for them very quickly. I will take them out and pay the assault fine just for the temporary pleasure of experiencing my "free speech" rights. The reason the "war" is being lost is because we haven't fought it. Just as we did in Viet Nam, we have disarmed our troops and accepted defeat. I say we "nuke" the bastids.

I've seen the damage drugs can do to a family, and it has nothing to do with illegal or legal, or even the amount of money. I have no use for the dealers and would make it a capital offense if they are dealers. If they are a user, I bet I could "cure" them in a short period. If they aren't "curable", well, they are dead already.

[TLI]

We aren't going to win the "War on Drugs" without becoming a "police" state.

OK let the slings and arrows begin. No slings / no arrows.

Just two or three points.

We already are a police state. When major LEO’s "Information Analysis Centers" (golly that sound official) are issuing reports declaring American Citizens that support a constitutional political candidate are “domestic terrorists” when having a Gadsden flag sticker makes you a domestic terrorist, when declaring support to the Constitution of the United States of America make you a domestic terrorists, and that very report is not only supported, it is distributed to PD’s in almost all 50 (or 57… plus one more… and maybe Alaska and Hawaii) and presented to the LEO’s of hundreds of P.D.’s as factual, then we are in a police state right now.

Since the cop industry is so huge now you can not pull the plug on a large percentage of it’s business. Strangely enough I believe you would hear arguments quite similar to the various justifications for bailout money. Too big to fail (and cause job loss) comes to mind.

Legalization probably would not be all that universal thus only shrinking the market, not eliminating it. Example… Marijuana – legal, heroin – not legal. Cocaine – legal, Methamphetamine – not legal. So on and so on. The total market for the high profit drugs that are left illegal begins to shrink significantly. What happens to the folks in the production and smuggling business when the total pie shrinks? They fight even harder for what is left. So, unless the fed-gov and all the states are willing to “go all the way” the problem gets more vicious, not less.

The (I assume) significant percentage of money going to Mexican government bureaucrats has become a steady flow and they have become accustomed to it. There are undoubtedly deep ties to government bureaucrats on this side that will lobby to NOT have drugs legalized. This will stem not from a sense of moral outrage at the drug use itself but from only an agenda of greed for secret payoffs.

Combine all this with the issue of the criminal illegal aliens, the communization of our government, the willful destruction of our economy and the free markets system, the arming of real American Citizens at such a pace as to even make ME take notice and one wonders if all this really is coasting down the road to revolution of some sort.

Oops, did I say that out loud? Must be one of those pesky domestic terrorists.

[Freedom2specul8]

It doesn’t make me mad. I was originally going to discuss the $$ and greed amongst the drug lords, their barbaric ways, and the corruption. If their govt had something like law and order, this wouldn’t happen in the first place. I’m sure she’s too afraid of offending mexico for saying such a thing...not sure what the fear is though.

[dennisw]

Let's legalize the stuff and this violence will stop overnight. Yes we will have some problems with this but I'm convinced they will be less than what we have now. Not only will the violence lessen in Mexico but it will lessen in the United States. We aren't going to win the "War on Drugs" without becoming a "police" state.

Drugs flow unimpeded in Mexico where they are defacto legalized
Mexico is full of crime
Legalizing drugs here will be the same
Criminals will move into other areas

Those gang bangers smoking legalized pot and shooting legalized meth look at you and say you look good to assault and rob. And being high on drugs makes them more eager to go after you and your family